SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER! Boston City Hall roiled by email party invitation for ‘electeds of color’ sent to all.
A Wu administration official, on behalf of the mayor, mistakenly sent all Boston city councilors an email Tuesday inviting them to a holiday party that was meant exclusively for “electeds of color,” prompting an apology and mixed reactions.
Denise DosSantos, the mayor’s director of City Council relations, told the body’s “honorable members” that, “on behalf of Mayor Michelle Wu,” she was cordially inviting each of them “and a guest to the Electeds of Color Holiday Party on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the Parkman House, 33 Beacon St.”
Approximately 15 minutes later, however, DosSantos sent out a follow-up email to city councilors, apologizing for the prior email, which was apparently only meant for those who were invited. The body includes seven white councilors and six of color.
“I wanted to apologize for my previous email regarding a Holiday Party for tomorrow,” DosSantos, a Cape Verdean Black woman, wrote. “I did send that to everyone by accident, and I apologize if my email may have offended or came across as so. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.”
Whether the email offended the excluded councilors was unclear, several of whom chose not to respond to the Herald’s request for comment.
Outgoing City Councilor Frank Baker, who is white, described the mayor’s decision to exclude some members as “unfortunate and divisive,” but said the email didn’t offend him personally.
“I don’t really get offended too easily,” Baker told the Herald. “To offend me, you’re going to have to do much more than not invite me to a party.”
Baker said he wasn’t sure what the reasoning behind the mayor having a separate party based on racial lines was, but said he didn’t think it was a “good move,” given the recent tensions on the City Council.
A Boston reader coments:
Haha, the apology is not for staging a racist, exclusionary holiday party … in luxury city-owned digs … but for inadvertently sending the invite to white people.
That’s pretty fkkn precious. Makes Claudine Gay look … OK, no, that doesn’t make her look less Nazi.
Do these people not listen to themselves?OK, white pol throws a party for white pols only, inadvertently sends invites to pols “of color.” Withdraws it with an “oops!”
You’d have people looting and burning shit over that one.
That’s different because shut up.